Best+Practices

=edmodo Best Practices=

Managing the safety and security of your edmodo group

//Brief descriptions of some "Best Practices" recommended by teachers using edmodo. Not everyone will agree on these - but let's see how we go!//

Teachers

 * **Get students to take ownership of the edmodo group : Are you doing all talking?** Consider if your edmodo group is more a teacher broadcast or a class conversation. In some cases this might be your aim - but the richest used of edmodo is when students take ownership and participate. Your edmodo workload will be reduced if students are writing class notes and answering questions from other students.
 * **Use edmodo as part of a strategy to empower your students** This can range from simple anonymous student polls, to sharing results of student feedback, to using edmodo an element of a faculty or school wide student voice strategy.
 * **Establish clear student and parent "service" expectations** Decide on the level of responsiveness you are prepared to offer students and let them know. Don't fall into trap of being expected to be online 24 hours.
 * **Think ahead: Arrange resources in a library folder for future reuse.** Your class will want to revise topics later in the year, and you may want to share across classes or reuse next year.
 * **Set up a buddy teacher as a co-teacher for your class.** If you work closely with a colleague in a similar class, you could share edmodo responsibilities and share resources across classes.

Managing the safety and security of your edmodo group

 * **Set clear parameters with students about the content that is appropriate for your edmodo class group.** A baseline requirement would be to meet current school guidelines for online behaviour. You may also wish to add a requirement that conversation be relevant to the class subject - this reduces the opportunities for distracting and potentially inappropriate conversation.
 * **Set up automatic email notification of all student activity**, and set up a rule in your email application to file these emails into a purpose-built edmodo folder (to avoid flooding your inbox). ** Why would you want to do this? ** Because as discussed in the school safety article, maintaining a safe classroom is your responsibility - the edmodo security model relies on you to monitor your virtual classroom.
 * **Set up a school edmodo subdomain to protect teachers and students** While it may take some effort to gain a sponsor, it's a good idea to have a member of your school executive take a leadership position on edmodo at your school and be involved in establishing the school edmodo subdomain. With a school admin in place, all teacher communication to students can be viewed, providing full disclosure for teachers and students. The school subdomain will also stop annoying fake-teacher accounts.